About Me

I am a PhD candidate at the Department of History and Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellow at the University of Rochester. I completed my Bachelor of Arts in History with Honours at the University of Queensland. My perspective on history, the humanities, and education has been profoundly shaped by my experiences living as an expatriate, first in Istanbul, Turkey and now in the United States. History is an indispensable tool for placing the manifold variety of human cultures and experience in into coherent perspective, and for understanding not only our past, but our present. My global travels, and the multitude of different perspectives and ideas I have encounter continually inspire me to more fully understand and more thoughtfully teach others about the past and its meaning for us today.

As a maritime historian, I am particularly interested in the role of exchange as a shaping influence upon societies and cultures across the globe. Expanding the concept of exchange to encompass not only the traditional forms such as trade and immigration, but also a ecological, epidemiological, ideological and cultural material is key to understanding the rise of a globally interconnected world and the vast changes that defined the early modern era. Examining history through the prism of exchange also provides an ideal means of casting America's colonial development within a broader context of global change. As an expatriate from Australia, I try to bring a unique perspective to the history of North America, and to integrate my own lived experience of the exchange of people, culture and ideas.

My dissertation explores pirates and piracy in the early modern Atlantic World, its development, practice and eventual decline and transformation into the mid-eighteenth century. More specifically, I am interested in uncovering and more fully exploring the experience of the men who comprised the bulk of pirate crews which was distinct from that of the infamous set of figures with which we are all familiar. By placing this marginal and largely undifferentiated group at the centre of my research agenda, I aim to more comprehensively explain and understand the variety of experiences and practices that fall under the broad category of piracy. This messier, more complex accounting of pirates and their occupation calls into question some of our more longstanding understandings of who pirates were, how and where they operated, and why.

I strongly believe that now more than ever, it is incumbent upon humanists to pioneer and foster the emerging role of digital technology in the humanities rather than to assume a passive, reactive stance to its transformative influence. As an Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellow, I have had the pleasure of assuming an active role in this revolution in research, pedagogy and theory. From the most fundamental process of improving my own grasp of digital tools, to working as a teaching assistant to undergraduates in the Digital Media Studies Program, the Fellowship has been an incredibly opportunity to improve my digital awareness and skills and to incorporate them into my research and teaching agendas. I am pursuing training in front end web development (including designing and coding this website from the ground up) and more broadly cultivating my appreciation for the ongoing and upcoming digital projects and tools that are transforming the humanities. In the classroom, I aspire to integrate my skills as a digital humanist into my teaching of history, encouraging students to cultivate their mastery of digital media alongside the traditional humanities skillset.

Finally, I am a lifelong believer in the value of community, camaraderie and mentorship in higher education. I have benefited personally and professionally from the fellowship of many wonderful colleagues in both the History Department and the Digital Humanities Program. The thoughtful, often inspiring feedback of faculty and friends have helped me be a better thinker and writer, and a far more humane humanist than I might otherwise might have been. I approach my study and teaching of history as an opportunity to likewise be a source of inspiration and encouragement.